Difference between revisions of "Site is blank"

(Back End Still Blank After the Custom Hack)
(Backend is Blank, Too)
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'''''Houston, we have a problem!!!''''' <br />
 
'''''Houston, we have a problem!!!''''' <br />
  
Well, not really. If the site Backend returns a WSoD and you can't enable '''Error reporting''', you will just have to use the nasty trick we mentioned earlier; however, this time, paste it into:
+
Well, not really. If the site Backend returns a WSoD and you can't enable '''Error Reporting''', you will just have to use the nasty trick we mentioned earlier; however, this time, paste it into:
 
  ROOT/administrator/index.php
 
  ROOT/administrator/index.php
  

Revision as of 03:35, 9 March 2013

White Screen of Death

A Blank Page or often otherwise called the White Screen of Death (WSoD) indicates that there is an error on the page; however, this is not necessarily caused by JomSocial even if the page that is expected to be loaded is one of JomSocial's pages. These white screens usually hide the exact error behind it, but these errors are cleverly hidden by Joomla to prevent potentially malicious users from viewing your Site Paths.

Enable Error Reporting in Joomla

Enabling this setting in the Joomla Global Configuration is usually enough for most of the errors to show up.

  1. Navigate to the Joomla Global Configuration in the site Backend.
  2. Under Server Settings, locate the Error Reporting option. It will likely be set to System Default, which would hide the error with blank page.
  3. Temporarily change this setting to Maximum or even Development.
  4. Save and return to the page with 'WSoD and now, in most cases, you will be able to see what the exact error is now.

Error Not Displayed, Error Reporting Set to Maximum or Development

  1. In the System pane in Joomla Global Configuration, enable the Debug System option.
  2. Save, and try again.

If the error still doesn't show, don't panic! Some developers put this code into their extensions:

/* Enable this when debugging*/
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors','0');


In essence, this little piece of code, if loaded on the page, will force Joomla to not show any error even if you enable System Debug and Error Reporting. It is most commonly used by beginner developers to hide notices and warnings in their code. Rest assured, JomSocial doesn't use this nasty trick to hide any errors in any piece of its code.

You will have to track down which extension prevents Joomla from displaying errors and that could potentially involve disabling many plugins, modules, and components, but, in most cases, it is the only way to properly identify the offender.

Hint: It's not JomSocial, so you can confidently skip disabling any JomSocial extension provided in our download package.

Backend is Blank, Too

Houston, we have a problem!!!

Well, not really. If the site Backend returns a WSoD and you can't enable Error Reporting, you will just have to use the nasty trick we mentioned earlier; however, this time, paste it into:

ROOT/administrator/index.php

Open that file and immediately after:

define('_JEXEC', 1);
define('DS', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);


Paste this little nifty code:

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');


Now, you should be able to view the error behind blank screen.

Backend Still Blank After the Custom Hack

This is potentially the biggest problem you might experience, but the solution is the same as if it was for not displaying errors in the Frontend, only this time, you will have to disable extensions directly in the Joomla Database.

Warning: This can potentially be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, so PLEASE make a Backup before you do anything.